France plans mobile phone ban in high schools

ISTANBUL

French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday announced plans to extend the mobile phone ban from middle schools to high schools.

"We removed phones from middle schools. We will likely extend this to high schools next school year," Macron said, speaking to readers of Ebra group newspapers in the commune of Mirecourt, in northeastern Vosges.

He reaffirmed that Education Minister Edouard Geffray “is currently looking into this.”

"It’s the place where you learn, and it’s the place where you interact," Macron underscored, further highlighting the rise in loneliness and mental health issues among young people.

'Information war' from ‘foreign powers’

When asked to reassure the French about “foreign interference and political disinformation,” Macron declined to offer “empty reassurance,” emphasizing the need “to keep a bit of concern” as the country faces “a moment of major upheaval and uncertainty.”

“There is an information war being conducted by foreign powers,” he stressed.

Macron also urged the French to become stronger “militarily and technologically.”